Data Notes: The MTA’s False Fare Evasion Narrative

The MTA's False Fare Evasion Narrative

NYPD Fare Evasion Enforcement Data

Enforcement data was provided by the NYPD in response to a FOIL request for the period covering the fourth quarter of 2017 and first quarter of 2018. The data was provided in a series of spreadsheets, with enforcement totals separated out for different lines listed under a given station name (e.g. there are separate records under “125 St” for the 1, 2/3, 4/5/6, and A/B/C/D lines). Every record was reviewed and assigned to a given MTA station based on the names reported in MTA ridership data. A single composite station was used to combine Lexington Av-63 St F Q station and Lexington Av N R W/59 St 4 5 6 stations, due to some ambiguity in the data about records listed for the “N Q R” stop under “Lexington Ave.” All other records in the NYPD enforcement data were assigned to specific MTA stations with reasonable confidence, after adjusting for typos, alternative spellings, and inconsistent station naming conventions in the NYPD data. Fare evasion enforcement relative to ridership (per 100,000 swipes) is computed on an annualized basis: the sum of arrests and summonses at a station during the 6-month period multiplied by 2 × 100,000 / 2018 ridership.

Subway Station Area Demographics

Subway station areas are defined to include all census tracts for which the center of mass intersects a 0.6km radius around the subway station entrance based on coordinates provided by the MTA and available through NYC OpenData. Census tract-level data on poverty and population by race/ethnicity was obtained from the 2018 5-year American Community Survey. We estimate the population that identifies as either non-Hispanic white or Asian as the sum of people who identify as either group. This estimate is very slight overstatement due to the 0.1 percent of the New York City population that identifies as both Hispanic and Asian.

Transit Districts

Stations were assigned to NYPD-Transit Bureau Districts based on the system map provided by the city. Two composite subway stations with portions in two different transit districts—the Lorimer St L/Metropolitan G and the 4 Av-9 St stations—were assigned to TD30.